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base 0.16.0 ships 42 top-level commands and 159 commands you can run (185 paths, counting the groups that hold them). This page is the map: which page covers what, which commands can remove data, and the short forms you can type instead of the full names. Grouping by consequence rather than by subject is deliberate. When you are about to run something you have not run before, what you want to know first is whether it can take anything away from you.
This reference tracks base 0.16.0. Every command and flag on these pages is checked against the shipped binary’s own help output before it is published. If your installed version disagrees with something here, base help <command> is the authority, not this page.

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Where each command lives

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Safe to run at any time

These read and never write. Run any of them to find out where you stand before you change something.
base standards test <file> and base graph purge --stale also read without writing, though the second one only stays read-only until you add --apply. base handoff show and base fork show read too, with one exception: a deferred record they find comes back to open.

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Writes to the graph

These add or update. None of them remove anything.
base reminder archive keeps the reminder, and base reminder unarchive brings it back. base defer migrate --apply snapshots first, and --rollback restores it.

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Takes something away

Every command below removes or rewrites data. Most print a plan and change nothing until you pass a second flag; the ones without a preview are marked.
Preview-by-default is a two-step on purpose. --yes, --apply and --force are the second half of a deliberate action, not a formality to type past.

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Short forms

Twelve commands have a single-letter or short alias, accepted anywhere the full name is. Some subcommands have their own, but not all of them do. The ones that exist: So base p l is base project list and base a q -c "auth" is base ast query --contains "auth". But base e a is not base entity add. entity has no subcommand aliases, and neither do goal, reminder, domain, rule, standards, commands, config, secret, extension, graph, memory, handoff, fork or relay.

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The one flag that moves

-g / --global targets the global tier instead of the workspace. Six commands carry it: rule, decision, handoff, fork, learn and changes. On the four that have subcommands, it belongs on the command itself, before the verb:
On the two that do not, it is an ordinary flag:
base graph apply-ops takes --global in its long form only. No other command has one at all: for the rest, the tier is decided by where you run them: inside a registered workspace, or falling back to global outside one. Check base help <command> before assuming a -g exists.